A woman has sued Visa, Mastercard and other credit card companies for letting her gamble away $70,000 in eighteen months. Lawyers for Cynthia Haines claim that because the bets she placed are illegal in California, her credit card providers shouldn’t have let the internet casinos take her money. The case illustrates the absurdities inherent in trying to apply regional laws to a network that observes no boundaries. Absurdities have never stopped lawmakers. Last week the US Senate voted unanimously to support an amendment which would ban all gambling on the internet (CI No 3,459). That well-meant prohibition comes too late for Cynthia Haines.
